As promised, a discussion for parents of preschool aged kids, similar to the Infants and Toddler updates thread.

AFM, DD is not going to preschool, but I have been looking at preschools, and I am planning on enrolling her in a "reading readiness" class at the YMCA. It is taught by a preschool teacher, and it sounds like something she'd enjoy.

DS#1 will be starting preschool on Wednesday. He's still at the daycare center at the Y, but is "moving up". We're happy that he will be in a class with at least two of his best buddies, but there are 3 of his friends who are staying behind in the toddler room. We feel sad that they'll be split up. One of the things we're most excited about (besides the drop in rates!) is the fact that swimming lessons are included as part of the preschool program.

The Lily twins start preschool on Thursday. They are going Tues., Wed., Thurs. from 9-11:30. Wish it was a full 3 hours, but I can't complain. They are going to the town's integrated preschool for both "special needs" and normally developing students. I can get them the Speech Language services they need to stay on track despite their hearing loss.
I'm looking forward to having a little free time 3x a week.
And I'm looking into a swimming class for a Monday or Friday as well as some tumbling on the other weekday if possible. That way we'll have something to do every day. They hate to stay home!
We're in a phase where no one wants to sit very long at dinner. I'm trying not to have a nightly battle. I make them eat one more bite and ask to be excused. I think they are a little tired - even though we eat around 5:30 every night. I finally got the back yard finished and they run around so much they are wiped out at the end of the day. Hooray! Everyone is asleep by 7:30 these days.

Lily, Could you see if they'll eat huge lunches, so when they eat petite dinners it works for nutrition? Because battling with children to sit and eat when they are tired is a lost cause, you know - they just yell, cry, throw food, drop their spoons or purpose (or whatever their chosen misbehavior is) and they still don't eat. And you and your husband end up with indigestion, which is also not fun!

Hurrah for letting them run around outside to be tired! Does this mean your son is climbing in the house less often? (if only 'cuz he's too tired to wiggle?) I hope so...

Enjoy having 3 mornings to yourself... if you plan it well (like remembering your shopping list when you take them to preschool, lol) you can get errands or the vacuuming done during those preschool times 2 days/week so that on the Thursday you can just chill out with a book and a coffee! (because you deserve it!)

DD#1 will be 3.5 this month. How time flies! She's home for now since I'm on maternity leave. She desperately misses "school" (all day day care) but we can't afford to send her while I'm home. Her pretend play has been incorporating a lot of her real friends from school. I'm glad she's happy there but it makes me feel kind of guilty, especially since DD#2 is a MUCH easier baby than she was. This one is actually sleeping. I only have to nurse her once a night (she's 11 weeks) so I feel kind of human and not like a zombie. This is making me feel MORE guilty about not going back and taking all this unpaid leave.

Things here are lovely, with only the occasional older sister outburst.

CT-DC - Here is the class description: Ages 3.9 to 5
For children expressing an interest in reading, letters and LEARNING! Staffed by a certified "P/S" teacher, this program will teach your child educational songs and encourage them to participate in reading enrichment activities that promote letter recognition, letter sounds, and sight word recognition.

I called to make sure DD was old enough, since her birthday is in November, so I thought that counted as 3.9, and spoke to the program manager, who said it does have a story time, but I don't know about any art. Even if it was just a storytime, DD would probably like it, but I thought the "enrichment" portion was great, and it's only an hour, so it wouldn't be too much for her attention span.

Lissa, maybe the universe is just trying to make it easier for when you do go back. Don't feel guilty - you are getting to spend some QT with both kids! And with the little one being non-fussy and the older one missing school, hopefully that will help it be a smooth transition when you return.

I'm excited for the pre-school age thread. DS is 3.5 now. DD still qualifies for the I&T board at 18mos :) but glad this one got started. DS is in his second year at our daycare TLE in Easton. They have two "pre-school" program rooms and he's still in the first, which he started last spring. He'll graduate up next year. He just got a new teacher over the summer, during which time they ran a special camp-like program, and we couldn't be more thrilled. She's using a lot of great behavioral rewards and classroom mgmt techniques that seem to work well for him. I'm anxious about next week when a number of his friends move to pre-school 2. He seems to be the only one except for his BFF of a halfway age between the pre-school 1 crowd and the pre-school 2 crowds. He's been with this little girl since our last daycare at my employer and they are very close, but most of his male buddies are a good 6+mos older than him and moving up now to pre-school 2. While I do think he'd like to stay with all the same friends, I do think he needs more time with the pre-school 1 curriculum, so I am not rushing him up into the next room. I am a little worried about his language development as well as speech pronounciation and I did initiate the assessment process with our public school system, so we will see what that brings. I hope everyone's LOs are well!!!!

I posted this in I&T and I figure you will all see it but just in case... Here's a link to timeout bottles that I saw on pinterest. They are beautiful so even if they don't work for timeout they might be a fun toy.

Great idea for a thread! My DD is 2.5 so on the cusp of I&T and preschool. Unfortunately because her birthday is in early February she misses the 2.9 cut off for preschool this fall and, therefore, will be one of the oldest kids starting for the first time next fall. She is at a home daycare 2 days a week but this fall there are 3 babies starting, including my DD #2 in November, and I was a bit worried DD1 would be a little bored this fall. Its been hard for me to get her out of the house this past month since DD2 was born and i definitely notice that she acts up more when she is bored. I ended up researching around and enrolled her in a "preschool prep" class, which seems ridiculous but it's perfect for us. It's 2 hours and they do art, stories, snack and gym and best of all it's DROP OFF! It's only about 5 mins from my house so I'm hoping that DD2 and I will be able to accomplish something while she's gone.

Otherwise we are at the cusp of beginning potty training. I just need to block off a weekend to stay at home anD see what happens with no diapers. Just have been reluctant to dSrt the process bc we have been Busy with DD2 and it's been a lot of change. Any potty training advice? Are pull ups worth it?

DD#1 just made the 2y9m cut off, so she is starting preschool next Tuesday! Im sending her 2x a week from 9:30-12. Im excited to have 2 days where I can spend just a little time with DD#2, maybe get a couple errands squeezed in and only listen to one of them whine! :) We just potty trained DD#1....was sooooo much easier than I expected. She only has had 2 accidents (too busy playing) in 3 weeks, sleeps in undies for nap and bedtime and hasnt had an acccident yet!! Rama, I found pull-ups great for the 1st week in the car only, otherwise they were useless in trying to teach her to use the potty. I was hoping DD#2 would take some sort of interest, she is 1.5yo...nope not even in the slightest. She will be my tough child tho

Rama - CT-DC gave me excellent advice when I was potty training. Skip the pullups - they only delay training. Keep your DD in diapers for a while and take her to the potty often. Once you sstart to get mostly dry days (lots of hits on the potty and mostly dry diapers) switch to undies (or get the Gerber training undies which are thicker cloth and help with leaks). My DD was trained in 2 weeks at 26 months old with this system. I only put her in pullups for nap and nightime. She's stopped napping, but I'm still using a pullup at night just because I hate the 3am "Moommmyyy...I'm all wet!" even though 9x out of 10 she wakes up with a dry pullup these days.
Good luck!

Hi, glad to see the Preschool thread as I did decide last minute to send DD. She is 3.9. Her first full day is tomorrow. We had orientation yesterday and it seemed to go pretty well. Today is her last day at the current babysitter so they are throwing her a little graduation party :-).

I also think that come October, I am going to send DS to the school to. They have a 15 month toddler program and if 2 kids are enrolled you get a 20% discount which will equal the same amout per month I currently pay the babysitter. It makes sense for me to have both kids at the same place. My dad will be doing the drop off in the morning and between DH and my dad, and step mom they will be doing the pick ups in the afternoon. This particular school is only open from 8-4 and those are my hours at work so my dad oftered to help.

I cant wait to take her first day of school pictures! Ill try to remember to put one up on the FB page.

Went to our preschool open house yesterday. My twins are in a class of 12 kids. There are 3 sets of boy/girl twins! Really cute. Trying to fill a rainy day today and then it's off to school with them tomorrow.
I got a preview this summer when they did the 6 week summer session so I'm ready for my 2.5 hours of "rest". Grocery store, fold a load of laundry (if I get it in the dryer before we leave) and/or run the vacuum. And sometimes I just plan to "sit in front of the TV and watch Project runway (or some other show my DH won't watch). :)

Driving DS to school yesterday I was discussing with him what will happen in 2 years when he starts kindergarten. He is so excited and can't wait. I think he's really excited to ride the school bus. But I want to weap a little just at the thought that in 2 years he will be in school.

He is only a few months away from his 4th birthday and DH and I were discussing how we feel we are through the worst of the 3.5s! He does such a better job of listening and being patient. And he's such a considerate child. DH and I had date night over the weekend. So he got to play with Grammy and Grampa, first thing the next morning he was jumping in bed with us. First thing he said was "How was your date night, Mommy?" I told him we had a nice time and he responded "I'm so happy to hear that." I nearly cried he was so sweet.

We're debating pulling DS from his current preschool and putting him in one in our home town so he gets to know the kids in town. But finding a new one and the new routine will be tough.

Kam, sounds like your son is a sweet boy, I always loved having those thoughtful children in my classroom - they also think about other children, and are very caring towards them. I remember as a preschool teacher, having one 4 yr old boy in my class who would pay attention when we played Duck, Duck, Goose and ALWAYS made sure to pick a child who had not been picked yet when he was It. It's more typical for children to pick their favorite friend on their turn, but he wouldn't - you could see that he was remembering and planning who to pick. My co-teacher and I would coach the kids to "pick X, X, X or X so everyone gets a turn" as we got 1/2 way through the game but we never had to coach Nicky!

I even had him as a toddler from 18 to 30 months old and he was thoughtful in THAT room, at that age - he'd get a child's special blanket or lovey if they were sad, he could even share when it's just not a usual thing for kids to do.

And enrolling him at a center in your home town would be nice for him to get to know kids, and you to get to know parents, too, in your hometown. The transition would be there, but I bet he'd do fine, since he sounds flexible and he's had mostly positive experiences at his current program so he'd transfer that good feeling to the new program.

And you know some questions you'll ask during your tour, such as "How do your teachers handle aggressive children?" "What are the ways you help children to learn and practice social skills and negotiating skills?" "What do you do if 2 children are fighting over something in your 4s room?"

Congrats to all the parents making the leap to having preschool aged kids!

Remember to ask them non-yes/no questions about their day. Instead of, "Did you have fun today?" Ask, "What did you do today?" followed by, "How did you do that?" Not only will you get more from them than, "uh-huh," about their day and learn more about what goes on you'll teach them how to converse and organize their thoughts to communicate events you were not there to observe.

I mention it because my mother taught kindergarten, and she could always identify the kids who were not used to answering anything but yes or no questions and had to bring them up to communication speed. It's an easy habit to fall into and not realize it.

Well DS scared us this weekend. we were shopping at Macy's when DH and I split efforts...DS managed to get seperated from us while shopping. Thankfully he didn't get/go far. but it was probably a min or two until we found him (erternity in my heart). When I saw his little sneakers running for me I was ready to strangle the boy for walking away. I could tell just how scared he was when he immediately turned his defenses on. "I wasn't scared Mommy, I wasn't lost!" Next day when he had calmed down we talked about it again.

What are your tips for talking to your kids about what to do if they get lost/seperated?

We've taught DS:
-Look for someone who works at the place (easier if at an amusement park since they wear uniforms you can point out in the beginning) or look for a Mommy or Daddy and tell them you can't find me
-when going to an amusement park/airport/museum/crazy busy place I take a picture of DS with my phone. Figure if in the craziness of him being lost and me trying to remember what he wore that day I will have an up todate picture of him on my phone.

I'd say that he should go to a cash register and tell the person working there "I'm lost. I need help." Because it's hard for a child to know "who works somewhere" because at Target, etc. it's just a question of a nametag... but they can (maybe) find a cash register or something official.

Teach them how to say their name as clearly as possible. Teach them a cell phone #, as soon as they can remember it. Only teach one because any more is unrealistic - so if he knows Mom's # but Dad is who is with him when he gets separated, Dad calls Mom and gives her a heads up the phone call might come....

And to remind him that he MUST stay close, and if he violates that rule he will be disciplined. No exceptions to this - hiding in the racks can't be funny one day when you know he's doing it and make you angry the next because he could get separated (not that you do this, I just mean in general).

But I love the photo in the phone thing - you totally wouldn't remember what a child was wearing.

And also, I think sometimes parents take a long time to try and search by themselves in a store or mall - when they should probably alert the store that your child is separated fairly soon so the store can be locked down and everyone can find the child. If child is just missing, you'll find him/her quicker, and if it's foul play then you can maybe head off a disaster by responding faster.

I'm a total freak about keeping my kids in eyesight at all times when we're out in public. That's why it's so hard with twins. They run in different directions. Of course for me it's even worse because I worry that once they get over an aisle, they won't hear me calling.
"Stay with Mama." "Hold onto the carriage" "If you can't stay with me, you'll have to ride in the cart"
It's soooo stressful. I miss the days of having them contained in a stroller. I also miss my backpack leashes.
I love stores with carriages that hold 2. I hate it when people with one child take them! (GRR)
I love the idea of a photo on the phone.

DH thought I was crazy for taking a pic of DS the first time we headed to an airport. But in the haze/panic of a lost child I figure it's one small thing to help out.

Thankfully DS is normally very good about staying with us now. We've also tried to adamantly tell him that if he wants to look at something he has to tell us and we will go look at it. And we always make sure we do that. If he wants to walk around one clothes rack, we go for it. Trying to teach patience (in him and us!) will be rewarded.

While DS knows his address and his full name and how to spell it, I wonder if in panic he'd be able to tell it to a stranger trying to help him out.

Wow, KAM, I'm sorry about the panic with your DS, but thanks for the reminder to have plans and to discuss what to do if a kiddo gets lost. The picture idea is a great one. I was going to start a new discussion, but the preschool section doesn't really exist (I get bounced back to "General".) Anyway, DS#1 is very into spelling and words these days. Everything is "Mummy spell X", "Mummy spell Y." He can spell his whole name (first and last), all our family's names, most of his classmates names, numbers through twelve, common animals, etc. He is also starting to point out words he recognizes when we are reading books together. He is just about to turn 3, so I don't want to go nuts or push him, but does anyone have any good ideas for spelling or per-reading games, books, even tv shows? (He currently loves Super Why on Sprout.) His preschool teacher said that she will start doing some pre-reading activities soon in the classroom, so I just want to reinforce those skills and foster his current interest when he's at home. Plus, his birthday is in a few weeks, so I am also looking for gift ideas, too!

Kiwi - There is a Super Why app that is very cool. DD has been spelling with it for ages now. It's freaky. Also, did you know Super Why is on channel 2 in the mornings? I just wanted to let you know because there it has no commercials, unlike Sprout.

Now I am exiting preschool discussions because I have about 1 more year until they are applicable to me ;)